This impressive infographic shows information about Viking or Nordic Mythology. Find short explanations for Yggdrasil, Asgard, Vallaha, Odin, Thor, Freyr, Frigg, Loki, Midgard, Valkyries, and Hel. Click on the infographic to make it smaller or larger.

In the Classroom

Use this infographic in conjunction with a study of Viking Mythology. Divide the students into small groups to investigate the different terms mentioned on the infographic. Have the students present their findings to the class by creating a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools, reviewed here. You might consider having students use Nordic Gods, reviewed here, to gather some basic information about the gods, Asgaard, etc.

The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Visualization site uses Google Maps to demonstrate the historical geography of the Atlantic slave trade. Three simulations show the origin of slaving voyages, embarkation points of slave ships, and disembarkation points of human cargo in the Americas. Changes in the color spectrum from green to red show the number and density of voyages cumulating over time. Zoom in or out on maps to show more or less detail.

In the Classroom

This site is perfect for use on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Display the different visualizations as part of any unit or lesson on the slave trade starting in 1526. Have students make a multimedia presentation about this site using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook from different perspectives within the slave trade such as a ship captain, slave owner, or slave.

Learn about the ancient Nordic Gods by using this simple, yet thorough, site. Learn about Tyr, Thor, Freya, Odin, and others. Click on a god's name and find out where and what s/he reigned. Learn about Yggdrasill, the World Tree, and Asgard where the gods lived. See the meaning of Germanic, Old English or Old Norse names.

In the Classroom

Include this site when studying Nordic or Viking mythology. Have a link to this site on your class web page for students to use at home. You might also like to share the infographic Gods and Mythology of Vikings, reviewed here. Divide students into small groups to investigate the gods and where they lived. Have them present their findings to the class by creating a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools, reviewed here. You might consider having students use Fakebook, reviewed here. Have them create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook from the perspective of any of the gods. Ask students to create a short story involving one or more of the gods and using the Old Norse names for other characters in their story. You might suggest the definition of the name indicate what that character is about.

Use this site as a reference to learn about Egyptian Gods. Find out about Egyptian monsters, some myths tied to nature, and the Egyptian number system, too. At the bottom of the page are links to more resources for Egyptian Gods.

In the Classroom

Use this site as a starting point to learn about Egyptian Gods for world history and ancient religions classes. It is also an excellent introduction to a unit on Egypt for young learners. Put a link to this site on a classroom computer as an activity center for the Egyptian unit of study. Assign student pairs or small groups a god and to research the myths about that god. Students could create a class book retelling a favorite myth for each god using Creative Common images to illustrate the myth. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Wikimedia Commons, reviewed here. Images and myths can be completed in Classroom Authors, reviewed here, for actual book production. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class.

Currencies of the World references all the currencies of the world, with ISO-4217 currency codes and commonly used symbols. Clicking on the name of a currency redirects you to the corresponding Wikipedia entry.

In the Classroom

Have your students enter the global economy. While studying different countries, research the corresponding currencies. Compare and contrast different regions, countries, coins, or values. In art, social studies, world languages, and literature, study the symbolism of each artwork represented on the coin. Have children create their own imaginary country and invent a currency. Prepare for a real, or even imagined trip to sharpen financial skills, math skills, research skills. Then find country attractions, travel costs, hotels, and even cultural attractions. Now have your students prepare to pay the costs in the currency of the country. Prepare a Prezi or PowerPoint to highlight travel plans and costs. Assign students two economically different countries. Research currency and determine average housing, car, education, average salaries, and living costs. Now calculate in that currency.

Explore the background of the American Revolution. This activity challenges you to try to deliver a letter from a rebel Patriot to the real Paul Revere. You must walk a dangerous path in Boston to get to Paul Revere's house, facing many challenges along the way. The interactivity with the quest may make you forget that you are learning important history along the way!

In the Classroom

Assign this activity in pairs when studying the American Revolution's beginnings. This activity would work well at a learning station or on individual computers. The activity takes about 20 minutes. The student challenges not only teach about the revolutionary period, but also explains the steps a park ranger takes when investigating a historical artifact or document. The text portions might be challenging. Pair weak readers with a strong reader.

Read interesting first-hand stories from British storytellers as they describe their experiences during World War Two. Click on a city on the map to find the short stories along with an accompanying quiz. Topics include starting school as the war was starting, memories of playing in bombed-out houses, and memories of watching a beloved cathedral burning. The site was created in the UK, so some of the pronunciations and spellings may differ from those in American English.

In the Classroom

Use stories as interesting non-fiction reading during your unit on World War Two or when teaching point of view and retelling. Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students create an annotated image to depict what happens in the story. These can include text boxes and related links when using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Students could describe the setting of the story by creating maps using Animaps, reviewed here. Students can add text, images, and location stops with this tool!

Find interactives to cover many environmental and science topics as well as economics and history. Explore and learn about environmental and political issues through a gaming process. Before dismissing the thought of games in education, check out the About Us section of this site. The activities here are vetted by educators as part of an educational grant. These (mostly) free, browser-based interactives also include answer keys and have been field tested in middle and high school classes. Hover over the Games and Activities tab to choose from the subjects in the drop down menu. Each subject page outlines the activity and includes an informational paragraph and links to the documents. Some interactives require a download to your computer.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use these interactives to review concepts learned during a unit of study. Consider using the interactives at the start of a unit to teach concepts as the material is being learned. Be sure to download the student activity document. Use the pre-questions to identify misconceptions and activate prior knowledge. Directions in the document alert you to the basics of using the interactive. Provide the post-questions to the students as they play the interactive to be aware of what they will be learning. Students can answer the questions individually, as groups, or as a class to review the concepts learned during the interactive and connect it to class. As a class, discuss how the scenario presented in the interactive is or is not like actual environmental issues of today. This would be an excellent activity for gifted students or for those who are ahead in their work in a differentiated classroom.

Discover "how the tournament would play out if 32 countries were competing in things other than soccer." This site compares world countries statistics on scores of topics, instantly drawing a "bracket" of the top 32 countries for that statistic around the world. Find out which country "wins" in categories as diverse as milk consumption, population density, or ticket sales for the movie Frozen! Click the topic at left to display the "bracket" instantly. Try predicting who will win as you check out all kinds of topics.

In the Classroom

This site would fit well in a world cultures/social studies class or even as part of an information literacy lesson. Math teachers can use it to show the usefulness of statistics. World language teachers may want to include it as part of cultural study. Share this site briefly on an interactive whiteboard or projector to spark discussion about what statistics can tell you about a country. Then turn groups loose to predict the outcomes of the "competition" in various categories. Have them keep a record: What do they predict? Why? Were they right? What might be the possible reasons for the "winner" (or loser) in the category they chose? What other statistical competitions would they like to see to gain the best profile of a country? As a class, try to name the top ten most revealing statistics they would like to see that are not already listed here. Then have them look for sources where they might find that information! Extend the findings by having student groups create infographics about their chosen "world cup" topic. Use a tool such as Easel.ly, reviewed here or Venngage reviewed here. In a government class, use this site to open discussion about the role of statistics in governing and meeting the needs of your citizens. For more demographics resources, try these or Knoema, a worldwide data source.

Retronaut is an archive of historical photos, though not your typical photos. These images are sometimes quirky, and generally unexpected. Many have explanations about the period. View images of 1970's rock stars with their parents (Elton John, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton to name a few). See Selma's Children, What Parisian Fancy Ladies wore in 1906, history's first women aviators, and much more. Explore the site by Most Popular, Featured, or The Latest. Click on an image to view a "capsule" with other related images. Some of the images have links under them for attribution, and you can see and read even more about that topic. Under latest, this reviewer found topics that were just added five days before, so you may want to check back if you do not find what you're looking for. Warning: At the time of this review there were two topics that may be inappropriate for the classroom. Use the URL of the topic you wish to share in a new window or tab of your web browser.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share Retronaut via Mashable with students to explore images from a given time or relating to any historic topic to get an interesting perspective not typically seen in textbooks. Create capsules using images to share for any classroom project or allow students to create their own in conjunction with classroom presentations. Use Wellcome Images, reviewed here, with over 100,000 historical images if you do not find what you want on Retronaut. Galleries are not moderated, so check before sharing on your interactive whiteboard or projector. You can always use the URL of the topic you wish to share on a new tab of your web browser.

What do you do in a day? Join a worldwide classroom sharing project for students to learn about life in other schools and cultures. This teacher-driven project, begun as a collaboration between schools in Tai Pei and California, collects "unique student-generated global dayta" about students' daily life using a simple, online Google Form. Day + data = DAYTA. The dayta is available for your classroom to use in loads of different math, social studies, and writing activities. Click to add your class using the Contact button. The project encourages you to form collaborations with another school. Click the link to the Idea Guide to find curriculum connections and lesson ideas. The project is adding new classes, so why not join in? Be sure to check out the community area where you can share your successes and questions with other teachers.

In the Classroom

Introduce Big Dayta in your world cultures, math, or writing class. If you team teach, work together with your computer, math, social studies, or English teacher to have students share dayta and then analyze and use it for your own class projects. Find specific curriculum activities for math, writing, and social studies classes on the site or ask your students what dayta they would like to compare and contrast in a "hands-on" experience with data. If they like learning about life in other places, your class may also want to join in #XW1W (Across the World Once a Week). Be sure to pass these projects along to other teachers! As a geography extension, have students create an electronic placemarker file using Google Maps or Click2Map, or an actual map poster of the places they learn about.

Discover what influences myths from ancient cultures have on contemporary cultures. Add pizazz to your unit on mythology. Learn about famous writers. Explore the detailed lessons and plans. Visit Myths From Around the World, a writing activity that teaches about myths from fifteen regions of the world. Read the myths of ancient Greece. Find directions to write your own myth with Jane Yolen's help. Lessons instruct the learning of the characteristics of a myth through reading, comparisons, and making inferences. Peruse the unit on Heroes and Legends, which includes lesson plans for examining heroes and their common characteristics. Furthermore, there is an Inuit unit that dives into the myths, legends, and stories from the Inuit culture. Learn about the Hero Twins from the Mayan culture. There is much here to explore for all ages!This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

After you choose your level, discover one or many of the lessons to integrate into your English Language Arts or Social Studies curriculum. Choose your objectives, and find the lessons that are appropriate. Some lessons can be shared on the interactive whiteboard or projector. Others are more appropriate alone as individual work. Materials are included so much of the prep work is already done for you. To conclude the myths unit, have students create a play featuring a unique culture and a hero they create. Students will need a detailed script containing; theme, plot, settings, and characters including a hero. Go as far as you want developing props, costumes, and accompanying sounds and music. Have students present using a live presentation, video, or digital storytelling. Choose from the TeachersFirst Digital Storytelling tools, reviewed here. This site is a great reference for an after-school enrichment program on writing, reading, book clubs, or even self esteem.

What was it like to be a sailor aboard the USS Constitution? Take an interactive tour of "Old Ironsides" and meet the sailors, see where they live and work, and learn about the ship from their perspective. Or, Meet Your Shipmates and find out about the men needed to crew a ship like the Constitution. You'll even meet the ship's dog! Finally, there is an interactive game, playable either as a one-time-only game, or by creating a log in and being able to save a game in progress. There are resources for teachers with lesson plans and suggestions for using components of the site for classroom activities. This activity is available for download on your iPad.

In the Classroom

The great sailing ships of the 18th and 19th century were important both to the nation's defense and to the growth of the US economy. There are hours of content here and the frustration will be selecting what you can use within the classroom timeframe you have. Consider introducing the site with some small portions on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Allow accelerated students to spend time with further exploration for enrichment.

Do your students remember 2000? How about 1950? This booklist explores the times of JFK and Reagan, the tumultuous 60s and Woodstock, Civil Rights, and so much more. CurriConnects thematic book lists include ISBN numbers for ordering or searching, interest grade levels, ESL levels and Lexiles''® to match student independent reading levels to challenge, not frustrate. For more on text complexity and Lexiles''®, see this information from the Lexile Framework. This list features books for all levels of readers. Let students choose a book in one area of interest during the 20th century and share with the class about times (probably) long before they were born. Don't miss other CurriConnects themes being added regularly. If your library does not have the books, try interlibrary loan!

In the Classroom

Make the 1950s and beyond come alive during your unit on American History. Have students choose a book from this list and present their impressions from it in the form of a blog post from the times. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Pen.io, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration! Have students interview parents about different times that they learn about. Have students include the interview in the blogs. Collect the links to all the student posts on your class web page for students to browse and gather a "human" experience of history.

See spectacular Drone views of many different locations by clicking on a circle or pin on the Google interactive map. The circles will have a number for how many different views of the area are provided. Search for specific cities, select editors' choices, or see the "Latest" drone footage. As with any Google map there are the usual navigation tools. To see if the area you want to view has footage, scroll through the map. The Drone footage is hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This site is continually adding new places to see. If you don't find what you want, check back frequently. Make geography come to life by showing students WHERE a story or news event takes place. Share the videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this tool to explore how it looks in the country or city studied in world cultures (or languages). Explore geography concepts, historical locations, famous battle locations, and more. Students creating a multimedia presentation with a setting can look at Travel By Drone to see if there is footage they can use.

Find simple descriptions of the main Roman gods, goddesses, and monsters. Learn the origins of the names of the months and weekdays. Find activities for designing a Roman mosaic and two board games the Romans played.

In the Classroom

Use this site as a reference for students studying world history and ancient religions. It is also an excellent introduction to a unit on the Romans for young learners. Put a link to this site on a classroom computer as an activity center for the Roman unit of study. Assign student pairs, or small groups, a topic (god or myths about that god). Have students create a multimedia presentation using UtellStory, reviewed here. This tool allows narrating and adding text to a picture. Challenge students to find a Creative Commons photo or image, and then narrate the photo as if it is a news report about the god's life. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try PhotoPin, reviewed here.

History on the Net contains a wide variety of resources for a broad range of history topics. Begin a search by exploring history topics or by searching resources such as online lessons or worksheets. Explore the Titanic, World War I, Vikings, Mayans, and so much more! Look through a large selection of reference materials: dictionaries, timelines, and more. History on the Net is a great starting point when looking for lessons and materials for teaching history across the ages!This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Make a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and use it as a center. Use this site as the starting point for individual or group projects. This site is a perfect addition to use with President's Day activities, when learning about the Olympics, or as part of a Black History Month lesson. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class. Have students create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Easel.ly, reviewed here, or Venngage, reviewed here. Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about a president, a passenger on the Titanic, a famous scientist, or another person learned about on this site.

Sound Infusion is part of a larger site about world cultures, Cultural Infusion. Use the menu on the right to learn about cultural information. Listen to sound loops of instruments from different cultures, compose music from those sound loops, and get a manual for using the program. By clicking on Cultural Information, you can select a country and find out about the geography and topography, history, performing arts, and other interesting facts. For performing arts, you will learn about dance and musical instruments and watch videos about both. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start your study of any country or culture. This site is excellent for enrichment. Include it on your class website for students to access both in and out of class. ESL and ELL students will be proud to make presentations about their country of origin using this site as backup and illustration. Be sure to ask them to compose music from the music loops and share with the class. Have individuals or partners create music for the country they are researching and make it into a podcast using Spreaker, reviewed here, to share with their friends and family. Share this site with world language classes as a general resource for cultural information.

With the normalization of relations between the US and Cuba, it's helpful to understand the context of the often-troubled relationship between these two countries since the onset of the Cold War. This interactive timeline provides images, historical information and links for further explanation for the time period from 1959 through the present. It's also possible to share the timeline or to embed it into a website or blog.

In the Classroom

No lesson on the Spanish American War, the Cold War, or US diplomatic relations within the Americas is complete without an examination of the tensions between the US and Cuba. The timeline is suitable for use on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Share or embed this tool into a classroom website or blog.

2015 marked the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, one of the founding documents of modern democratic society. In recognition of this anniversary this committee collected a number of resources for celebrating and understanding its significance to history. An interactive timeline highlights events prior to and following the signing of Magna Carta. Essays discuss Magna Carta's impact on modern democracy. An interactive map places events in geographic contexts. And perhaps you're planning a trip to the UK for the celebrations? Find visitors' resources and a calendar of commemorative events. Check out the resources under Schools, including biographies of those involved (including a whole section on women) in the development of the document. There are lesson plans aligned with the UK's school system, and a quick Q&A overview of the importance of Magna Carta today. Don't miss the YouTube video explaining the work of Britain's Parliament in just over 60 seconds. If your district blocks YouTube, then this video (and others) may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

No study of modern democratic political systems is complete without an understanding of Magna Carta. On its anniversary, incorporate the interactive timeline into a discussion of the roots of the US Declaration of Independence or the post WW2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Compare and contrast the different ways the principles that underpin Magna Carta have been transformed into democratically elected governments across the world.